Korea timeline

June 25North Korea invades South Korea with 135,000 men, initiating the Korean War. United Nations Secretary-General Trygve Lie comments, "This is war against the United Nations."

TRUMAN

June 27President Harry S. Truman orders the Navy and Air Force to help South Korea and deploys the 7th Fleet to waters off Taiwan to prevent the spread of the conflict to other Far East waters.

June 28North Korean forces capture Seoul.

June 2918 U.S. B-26 Invaders bomb Heijo Airfield near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

July 1First U.S. infantry unit arrives in Korea.

July 2Off Chumunjin, on Korea's east coast, the USS Juneau helps destroy three of four attacking North Korean torpedo boats.

July 5Battle of Osan. First U.S. ground action of the war.

July 6Fifty-seven Army nurses arrive in Pusan, Korea. They helped establish a hospital for the wounded. Two days later, on July 8, 12 Army nurses moved forward with a mobile Army surgical hospital, or MASH, to Taejon.

July 7Gen. Douglas MacArthur is appointed supreme commander of U.N. Command in Korea.

Aug. 21Althea Gibson, a 22-year-old Florida student, is accepted into the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association and will play in the U.S. tennis championships.

Aug. 27U.S. government seizes railroads to avert a nationwide strike.

Sept. 8Allied troops stopped the deepest Communist advance, at the Pusan Perimeter in southeastern South Korea.

[Photos: US Army]

Invasion of Inchon Korea

Sept. 15U.S. and allied forces land U.S. Marines and Army troops at Inchon.

Sept. 27U.S. and allies retake Seoul on Sept. 27 after a week of fighting.

Sept. 30Chou En-lai, foreign minister of China, warns, "The Chinese people will not supinely tolerate seeing their neighbors being savagely invaded by the imperialists."

Oct. 7Yankees win the World Series in four straight over the Phillies.

Oct. 11FCC authorizes CBS to begin commercial color TV broadcasts.

Oct. 19The Allies capture Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

Oct. 25Communist Chinese forces launch their first offensive of the war.

Nov. 1A day after anti-U.S. nationalists start an uprising in San Juan, Puerto Rico, two Puerto Ricans attempt to assassinate President Truman.

Nov. 8First all-jet combat in history. An American F-80 shoots down a Soviet-made MiG-15 fighter in a 30-second dogfight.

Nov. 16Truman declares that the United States has no intention to invade China.

Nov. 26Blizzards kill 250 people across the United States.

Allied troops begin to retreat after an attack by the Chinese. The next day, the encircled 1st Marine Division fights its way southward from the Chosin Reservoir to the port city of Hungnam.

Nov. 30Truman declares the United States would use the atomic bomb to get peace in Korea.